Aqaba or Beirut?

Neither city has the long sandy beach of a classic resort, and Aqaba's advantage is the water. The Gulf is clear, calm and warm all year, and coral starts a few metres out along the South Beach strip, so every swim can turn into snorkelling. The town beaches are narrow and conservative, so most visitors use the resort and beach-club stretches south of town and at Tala Bay.

Beirut's shore is mostly rock. Locals swim off the platforms along the Corniche, and the water at Ramlet al-Baida is unreliable. Swimming there is a summer affair at private beach clubs, or a drive up the coast to Byblos and Batroun, although the all-day social scene at those clubs is something Aqaba does not have.

Beirut is one of the great places to eat in the region, and Aqaba does not try to compete. In Beirut a day can include breakfast at a Hamra bakery, an Armenian grill in Bourj Hammoud for lunch and a long mezze dinner with Bekaa wine in Achrafieh or Mar Mikhael, with a mountain-terrace lunch at the weekend.

Aqaba's best meal is sayadieh, or fish chosen by weight near the old town. Otherwise it offers falafel, shawarma and hotel buffets. Its one advantage is cheaper alcohol, thanks to the tax-free status.

Beirut has much more to see, even though war has broken up its old city. The Phoenician sarcophagi and Roman mosaics of the National Museum, the contemporary art in the Sursock villa and the restored streets around Place de l'Etoile fill two or three days, with Gemmayzeh's stairways and the bullet-marked buildings adding street-level history.

Aqaba's fort, the low walls of Ayla and the early church site take a morning. Anyone there for heritage spends the day at Petra instead.

This is the widest gap between the two. Beirut goes out late and dresses up for it: wine and cocktail bars line Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh, Hamra has cheaper student bars, electronic clubs fill the old industrial area by the port, and rooftop clubs run until dawn in summer.

Aqaba's evenings mean a walk on the corniche, a shisha café and an early night before a dive. Drinking happens in resort bars and diver pubs, with the odd beach-club DJ night in the cooler months.

Both have outstanding outdoors close at hand, but of quite different kinds. In Aqaba it is under the water and in the desert: shore dives at the Japanese Garden, a cargo ship and a tank sunk as artificial reefs, and the red sandstone valleys and Bedouin camps of Wadi Rum about an hour away.

Beirut's outdoors is in the mountains behind the coast. Pine forest is within an hour, Faraya and Mzaar have skiing in winter, and there are the Jeita Grotto caverns, paragliding above Jounieh, and the Qadisha Valley and the Cedars further out. In Beirut the obstacle is traffic; in Aqaba it is the summer heat.

Beirut has far more choice. Within two hours lie the Crusader castle and harbour of Byblos, the huge Roman temples of Baalbek, Anjar and the Bekaa wineries, the sea castle at Sidon, the Roman ruins of Tyre, and the Beiteddine palace with Deir el-Qamar. That is enough for a different outing every day of a week, though conditions in the south and the Bekaa are worth checking first.

Aqaba has one outstanding trip, Petra with Little Petra, and little else that is easy. Eilat and the Sinai both mean border formalities.

Aqaba is the easier choice for a family, mainly because it works as a resort. It has a calm, shallow sea, glass-bottomed boats that show children the reef, and hotels with pools and kids' clubs. A night in a Wadi Rum camp is an adventure for older children, though the summer heat rules out midday outings.

Children are just as welcome at the table in Beirut, and the Corniche, the Jeita Grotto and the Harissa cable car make good outings. However, broken pavements, few crossings and aggressive drivers make pushchairs hard work and turn most trips into a taxi ride.

Neither city has public transport that a visitor can rely on, and both depend on taxis. Aqaba is the simpler of the two. Its centre is small, the resorts sit along one coast road, and the roads are good enough to hire a car for Petra and Wadi Rum. Heat is the main obstacle to walking.

Beirut's districts are pleasant on foot within themselves, but moving between Hamra, Downtown and Mar Mikhael means steep streets, wide roads and heavy traffic. Driving out of the city yourself is demanding.

Beirut is the place to shop. It has the boutiques of Lebanese designers in Gemmayzeh, Mar Mikhael and Saifi Village, internationally known couture houses, malls in Verdun and Achrafieh, and the jewellers, leather workers and fabric sellers of Bourj Hammoud.

Aqaba's market streets sell spices, dates, Dead Sea products and layered sand bottles, plus tax-free electronics and perfume. It has no fashion shopping and little genuine craft.

Both cities have two price levels, cheap street food with a much dearer layer above it, and Aqaba is slightly kinder overall. Its town-centre hotels, fish meals and taxis cost little, and drinks are cheaper thanks to the tax-free status. Dive courses, desert tours and Petra entry still add up.

In Beirut, manakish and neighbourhood mezze in Hamra are bargains. But the restaurants, cocktail bars and hotels of Achrafieh and Mar Mikhael charge Southern European prices, so a trip built around going out costs far more there than a quiet one.

Beirut has a real, if small, scene. There are Lebanese Philharmonic concerts in churches, Arabic theatre and revived music-hall cabaret in Hamra, jazz and indie nights in Mar Mikhael, and summer festivals among the temples of Baalbek and at Beiteddine and Byblos. Aqaba offers hotel lounge bands and Bedouin music around a Wadi Rum fire, and little more.

Aqaba is the place to unwind. The pace is slow, traditional Turkish baths in the town offer steam, scrub and massage, and the south-coast resort spas use Dead Sea mud and salt. Warm, dry winter days suit a quiet week by the water.

Beirut is loud and stays up late, and its hammam tradition has nearly gone. Rest there means a hotel spa, a sunset walk on the Corniche or a night in a guesthouse in the cooler Shouf villages.